Construction of roads and associated surfaces



y 1968 J. R. v. DOLPHlN 3,385,180

CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS AND ASSOCIATED SURFACES Filed March 1. 1966 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 P- 0 J NP r 1 l l O O l I I: I J i X W-H (5 0 J U-W -J JR,

2 W G 0 l M fl-w I U 0 l I I F' i '1 V I 17 f z z Q l 1 Q I I 1 l 0 0' 28, 1968 J. R. v. DOLPHIN 3,385,180

CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS AND ASSOCIATED SURFACES Filed March 1. 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 United States Patent 3,385,180 CONSTRUCTIQN OF ROADS AND ASSOCIATED SURFACES John R. V. Dolphin, Whitchurch, England, assignor to T1. (Group Services) Limited, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England Filed Mar. 1, 1966, Set. No. 530,934 5 Qlairns. (Ci. 94l) ABSTRACT 9F THE DISCLOSURE Roadways, especially city streets, are rebuilt with extra pedestrian ways by bringing up successively wheeled prefabricated units which contain the extra levels, so that the bases of the units overlie the existing roadway and then the base of each unit is imbedded in concrete to form the new roadway. The extra levels can be on sub-units of the main unit, which move apart laterally after the unit has been brought up to its final position, and form ele vated sidewalks on opposite sides of the new roadway.

There are at present serious obstacles in the way of implementing recent proposals for alleviating the problem of congestion in big cities by providing separate roadways and walkways at different levels and mutually separating the traflic on foot, the through vehicle traffic, and the vehicle traffic that is delivering goods to, or collecting goods from, the buildings lining the thoroughfare. The first of the obstacles is, of course,cost and the second is the upheaval and delay caused by the building works at present necessary, with present methods, to construct the various ways. For example it has been estimated that the direct cost of providing Oxford Street in London with the necessary walkways and vehicle ways would be of the order of $40,000,000 per mile. This represents, however, only a portion of the true cost, which must take into account the dislocation resulting from the closure of the street for two years or more while the building works are in progress.

It is an aim of the present invention to provide a rapid way of installing m-ulti-level roadways and walk- Ways, primarily in tightly built-up areas, with the minimum of dislocation and inconvenience. According to the invention it is now proposed to form such multi-level ways by bringing up successively modular units in the form of low-loading trailers bearing at least the framework of the supporting structure for the ways that are above ground level, and leaving each trailer in stiu as the base for the supporting structure. Preferably, where the upper ways are to be disposed at each side of the roadway, leaving the latter open to the sky, the sub-units for the two side structures are initially mounted close together on the trailer and then, when it has been towed into position in the roadway up against the preceding unit, the two sub-units are moved apart laterally, for example by winches or by fluid-pressure rams, until they reach their final positions. The trailer chassis that is left in the middle then forms the basis for the new roadway surface.

The chief advantage of this method of construction is that it can be carried on substantially without interference to traffic, The individual portions of structure which make up the trailer can be manufactured wherever s-uitable at widely separated points and brought together in daytime to form the trailer unit at a convenient open space in the neighborhood of the street that is under reconstruction. Then, with traffic in the street halted overnight a unit can be towed into position during the night, connected up to the preceding units, and the street can then be reopened for use the following day. A temporary roadway structure can cover the trailer chassis, and an easily movable ramp leads from the existing roadway onto it. Depending on the size and complexity of the units it may be possible to install two or more units each night, allowing the traffic to flow normally in the daytime. The temporary road surface can be replaced by a permanent grouted-in concrete one at weekends.

It will thus be seen that the reconstruction can take place without seriously interrupting traflic and the only preliminary work required is the removal of obstacles such as bollards, lampposts, road signs and so on. When the elevated sidewalks and side traflic ways are installed prefabricated bridge units, crossing the central roadways and interconnecting the elevated ways on opposite sides at suitable intervals, can be dropped into place.

The units can be reconstructed in reinforced or prestressed concrete, or in concrete-clad steel, or in bare steel or light alloy or any other suitable material.

The invention will now be further described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is an inverted plan view of the unit in its minimum-width condition;

FIGURE 2 is a scrap section, to a larger scale, on the line 22 in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 shows one of the units after expansion of its final position;

FIGURE 4 shows a street in the course of reconstruction in the manner according to the invention;

FIGURE 5 illustrates the temporary arrangements made for allowing traffic to pass before reconstruction of the street is complete; and

FIGURE 6 shows the complete reconstructed thoroughfare in use.

The embodiment described by way of example is suitable for converting a reasonably straight street of roughly uniform width into a thoroughfare that segregates motor trafiic from pedestrian trafiic and puts the former at ground level and the latter onto pedestrian ways level with the first or both the first and second storeys of the buildings that line the street.

The basic structural units are assembled from prefabricated parts of reinforced concrete which are made in factories and brought by the most suitable form of transport, water, rail or road, to a convenient site near the street that is to be reconstructed.

On this site the parts are off-loaded by cranes and assembled, to form the basic units. Each unit comprises a wheeled base structure built up of rolled steel joists I supported on wheels W which are hardly larger in diameter than the depth of the joists. Mounted on this base structure are two sub-units of reinforced concrete, each comprising a pair of uprights U, with platforms P extending out-board of them at levels corresponding approximately to the floor levels of the buildings that border the street. Each sub-unit is supported from the base structure by prongs, not visible, that slide in relation to the transverse joists of the base structure, allowing the two sub-units to he slid laterally between the position shown in FIGURE 1 and that shown in FIGURE 3. In the former position the supporting prongs of the two subunits overlap within the base structure and the overall width of the whole unit is only that of the base structure,

The overlapping can be achieved for example as shown by arranging the prongs Q of one sub-unit to extend betweeen the pairs of transverse joists which are hollow, while the prong Q of the other sub-unit are bifurcated and lie along the channel-like outside faces of these joists.

The actual reconstruction of the street can be arran ed to take place Wholly at night and/or at weekends.

At the end of each day the street is closed to trafiic and one or more of the units that have been erected at the nearby site during the day are towed into place by iron horse type towing vehicles T. FIGURE 4 shows such a unit just arriving. The unit is brought to a position in which it abuts the preceding unit (the towing vehicle T can drive up a ramp R onto the preceding unit to allow this) and then the two sub-units U are urged laterally apart to their normal final positions in which their platforms P are aligned with the platforms of the preceding units and form the pedestrian Ways at the levels of the different storeys of the adjacent buildings. Correct location of the newly brought-up unit with respect to the preceding unit can be ensured by suitable locating lugs on prongs, assisted if necessary by the use of jacks and/or packings. If desired, the platforms at ground level may be omitted, although this has the drawback of making the side way, that is then left exposed, at a lower level than the roadway.

The roadway is formed by grouting in the base structure where it stands. The wheels will normally simply be buried in the concrete but if it is thought to be economically worthwhile they could be removed and recovered for re-use after first transferring the load to the joists of the base structure, for example by the use of hydraulic jacks.

The grouting will normally be left to weekends. Overnight there will only be time to haul into place one, two or at the most a few units before the street is due to be re-opened to trafiic the following morning. Temporary beams B are inserted in the base structure for this purpose as indicated in FIGURE 5, and a ramp R leads up from the old road level.

The units can incorporate longitudinal channels or passages, for example within the depth of the central roadway portion, to receive services such as power and telephone cables, sewers and gas and water supplies, making it unnecessary to retain access to the services already below the existing roadway. However, where existing service cables and pipes are to be retained it will be necessary, before grouting, to insert manhole extensions to retain access to existing manholes. Bollards previously removed can be replaced in the new roadway where necessary. Lighting, road-signs and the like can be incorporated in or mounted on the side sub-units.

It will be understood that the proposed units require no foundations other than the existing roadway; on the contrary, they are complementary to the existing foundations of the buildings alongside the road.

The faces of the buildings fronting onto the roadway will often not lie in a common vertical plane. In that case the units can be tailored to suit the sites by making the sub-units have a varying overhang. They can even include adjustable sections if desired, the sections being moved out to come into contact with different faces of the adjacent buildings as soon as the unit is in place.

Furthermore it will be noted that the roadway itself need not be of constant width, as variations can be allowed for by moving the sub-units apart to a greater or lesser extent during installation.

The units need not of course all be identical, but could be modified to suit local variations in the requirements of the street as the reconstruction progresses. The varied units can still be built up from the same basic prefabricated parts, their assembly at the nearby site into the appropriate units being programmed to fit in with the progress. As indicated in FIGURE 5 and in the completed thoroughfare shown in FIGURE 6, there will normally be pedestrian bridges at intervals along the length of the street, and these can either be brought up with units or dropped into place separately after the roadway units are grouted in.

Although in the example described there is only a single level of roadway provided for vehicles, it would be possible to provide a second roadway level above the first, so that for example one could be used for local traffic and the other for through tratfic. The units could then for example be of box-like cross'section, with the pedestrian platforms slidable outwards laterally from retracted positions in which they overlie the upper roadway, or such platforms could be provided at the levels of both roadways, with even a third pair of platforms at a higher level as well.

I claim:

1. A prefabricated unit for use in reconstructing a multi-level thoroughfare on the site of an existing thoroughfare, said unit comprising a wheel-mounted base structure of generally flat horizontally extending construction, a pair of sub-units, said subunits being mounted on said base structure, respective laterally outwardly extending platforms on each of said sub-units, said platforms being suitable for forming pedestrian ways, said sub-units being movable apart in mutually opposite horizontal directions with respect to said base structure between first positions in which said sub-units are close together and lie substantially wholly directly over said base structure and within its plan area and second positions in which said sub-units and the platforms thereon extend laterally beyond said base structure to leave be tween said sub-units a clear area over said base structure wide enough for a roadway to be built therebetween with said base structure embedded in said roadway.

2. A unit as set forth in claim 1 comprising at least two platforms, one above the other, associated with each of said sub-units.

3. A unit as set forth in claim 1 wherein said base structure incorporates passages extending horizontally longitudinally thereof and capable of receiving service ducts.

4. A method of reconstructing a multi-level thorofare on the site of an existing vehicular thorofare comprising constructing, at a point or points remote from the existing thorofare a succession of units each comprising a wheelsupported base frame and prefabricated multi-level subunits of uniform cross-section incorporating pedestrian ways and supported on said base frame for lateral movement thereon, bringing these units up to the existing thorofare one after another to form a line of units in end-to-end relationship with the base frames overlying the existing thorofare, moving said sub-units laterally apart to leave an area therebetween wide enough for the passage of vehicles, and embedding said base frames within said area in road-forming materials to form a new vehicular roadway.

5. A method of reconstructing a thorofare as set forth in claim 4, wherein the sub-units of each unit are moved apart laterally on the arrival of that unit to join the existing line of previously brought-up units.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS JACOB L. NACKENOFF, Primary Examiner. 

